Analyzing Posters

Brief History of Posters 19th century: posters were literally plastered or painted onto the sides of buildings and specialty kiosks. Printing technology decreased the cost and literacy rates improved increasing the number and kinds of “posters”. Since designed for public space, consumed by masses, poster design is economical; read quickly.

You know a lot already Looking at the following poster example: What visual aspects of the poster tell you it’s probably for a movie? When do you think this poster was made? Why? What kind of movie is being publicized here? What visual aspects encourage you to make that judgment? Are there other ways to “read” this poster? E.g. Feminist narrative?

1 Title: Top left because we read left to right Title: Large, relative to other objects 2 Title: Simple, sans serif font for easy reading Woman: Intentionally larger, see her second. Colors: they aren’t contrasting colors, so woman doesn’t pop; notice too her body draws your eye down the poster. 3 Type: Non-essential information in thin font

Using what you know to analyze Using faces Always look for the position of faces What we already know Follow intuitions and then research for confirmation What we know because we have bodies Think of the Uncle Sam poster; why do you think it’s almost life-size? What we know because we live in particular times and places Why do you think Uncle Sam is white? What cultural understandings of ethnicity might be at work in your poster?

Documentary Photography Photos don’t actually “capture” reality because reality isn’t “out there” It’s four dimensional experience vs two dimensional reality of the photograph Photos are always rhetorical because photographers had to make choices about how an audience's attention would be directed and shaped by looking at the photo.

The rhetorical photo Photographs direct our eyes and attention through vectors of attention Photos focus our attentions on particular aspects of scene by framing Photos focus our attention on aspects of a scene by using cropping

Vectors of Attention How is your sense of a photograph shaped by someone looking directly at you versus away from you? When vector of attention is directed at an audience, it’s a way of pulling you into the scene; establishing emotion (pathos) Vectors of attention are about arrangement and so they’re about logos.

Framing Vectors are about arranging elements, framing is about what to include at all. Framing asks you to take on the physical perspective of the photographer relative to what’s photographed. Ask: how does the possible placement of objects/shapes affect what’s happened and perceived?

Cropping Think about your assumptions of the following photo. Then think about how those assumptions were changed based on what part of the image was revealed.

In-Class Exercise

Homework Wiki Discussion